“I have told them. They don’t listen. They keep doing it.”
“Well, tell them you don’t need fixing up anymore. You’ve already gotten yourself a girlfriend.”
“And what should I do when they want to meet this fictitious girlfriend?” Carter always came across as such a nice guy that she’d assumed he was sweet and open and earnest. But he wasn’t really. The edge to his tone was bone dry. Not sweet at all.
Ruth being Ruth, it made her like him better. “Then you get yourself a fake girlfriend. Or better yet, a fake fiancée. Just to get your friends off your back.”
“A fake fiancée?”
“It happens.”
“In what world does it happen?”
She gave him an exaggerated frown. “It can happen in this world. Right here. Why not? You know, I don’t know if this is true, but I heard that Lance and Savannah got married not because they were in love but because Lance needed to be married to inherit his grandma’s money.”
Carter shook his head. “Have you seen them together? Lance and Savannah are definitely in love.”
“I know that. They are now. But I heard...” She sighed and shook her head. “Sorry. It’s not really my business, and I know they’re your friends. I don’t know Lance, but I really like Savannah. And I’m glad whatever happened worked out for them. All I meant was that people do things sometimes that aren’t normal but that work out for the best for them. So if you need a fake girlfriend or fiancée to give yourself a break from all the fix-ups, then you should do it.”
“And who’s going to agree to such a ridiculous scheme?”
“You seem to have friends coming out of your eyeballs. I’m sure you’ve got a female friend who would agree to it.”
Something happened to Carter’s face. She saw it clearly. It was like a sudden wave of painful recognition rose up and slammed into him. Like he was hit with a memory that hurt so much he couldn’t immediately hide it.
Ruth sucked in a breath. “Carter? What’s the matter?”
He shook his head and swallowed so hard she saw it in his throat. “Nothing.”
“Well, something’s wrong. Did I say the wrong thing? I’m sorry. I’m always doing that. I don’t seem to have any tact or—”
“No, no. It’s not you. You didn’t say anything wrong at all. I don’t have a friend I’d feel comfortable asking to be my fake girlfriend.” He glanced down at his empty beer glass. “My best female friend married my brother.”
Ruth stiffened as she started to put pieces together. She glanced over to the bar where Lincoln was chatting with some customers. He was sexy and charming and rakish. And deeply in love with the woman who had always been Carter’s best friend.
“Shit,” she breathed.
Carter straightened up and met her eyes. “What?”
“Summer? Is Summer the one that you...?” She trailed off, uncharacteristically hesitant about putting it into words.
“No,” Carter said.
“She is! Oh my God. She is.” Ruth was absolutely astounded. Not once would she have imagined that Carter would fall in love with his best friend and then have that best friend marry his older brother in what by all accounts had been an exciting, whirlwind romance. “I’m so sorry, Carter. No wonder your friends are worried about you.”
“I’m fine,” he gritted out, his eyes flashing in a way she’d never seen from him before. He was angry. “I said I was fine.”
“I can tell you’re fine. I didn’t mean I was feeling sorry for you. But it’s still terrible. I mean, what a ridiculous and painful confluence of events to happen to you.”
Carter relaxed, his annoyance with her fading as quickly as it had come. “It didn’t just happen to me,” he admitted. “I made a lot of mistakes. If I hadn’t made them, things might have been different. But I’m over it now. I’m fine.”
Ruth scanned his face, wondering if that were true. She doubted it. He probably still had a thing for his brother’s wife that he was desperately trying to get over.
What a terrible situation. Made worse if everyone was secretly feeling sorry for him. It sounded like the kind of romantic mess she herself might have fallen into. And she liked Carter too much not to try to help. “Okay. I believe you. But you’ve got even more need for a fake fiancée than I realized. So how about this? We can pretend to fall in love and then pretend to be engaged for a few months. That would give you a break from your friends’ attempts to fix you and help them understand that you’re really over whatever you went through before.”
“Why the hell would you want to do that?”
“Why not? How is it going to hurt me?”
“Well, for one thing, you’re not going to be able to date anyone while you pretend to be with me for a few months.”
“Who cares about that? I told you, I’ve had nothing but flops in the romance department, and I need a break from the discouragement for a while. I want to just focus on my work for now. Oh, actually, it might help me out too. If I’m your fiancée, I’ll have all kinds of opportunities to make business contacts. I can line up a bunch of jobs, and you can get some relief from the endless fix-ups. It will be good for both of us. We can keep it up for a couple of months. Until after Christmas. Then we can decide the whole thing happened too fast and break up. That way we can both get fresh starts after New Year’s.” She beamed at him, pleased with how neatly the idea was falling together in her mind. “It’s perfect.”
“It’s crazy,” he muttered.
“No, it’s not. I think it’s a great idea, and it’s going to help both of us out.”
“You’re crazy.” He was glaring at her through narrowed brown eyes.
She grinned. “Let’s do it!”
“Fine.”
The word surprised her since she’d been expecting more of an argument. “Really? So you don’t think it’s crazy?”
He shook his head, his mouth turning up in the most appealing little smile. “Oh, it’s definitely crazy. But what the hell? I could use some crazy right now.”
She clapped her hands, so excited about the wild idea that she could hardly contain herself. “Me too. So let’s do it.”
He was opening his mouth to reply when Ruth’s phone buzzed with another text. She glanced down at it. Kayla. Did he show up?
“Is it important?” Carter asked in a mild tone, like he was subdued by the interruption.
“Not really.” She put her phone down and sighed. “My stepsister. She’s just sixteen. I told her I’d bring her some groceries over since there’s nothing in the house. She was just asking if you showed up for the date.”
“Do you need to head over there?” His brows were pulled together, and his mouth had turned down. He looked concerned and a little confused.
“Not right away. Kayla doesn’t drive yet, and her father and brothers are... kind of thoughtless. I can bring some groceries over when we’re done here.”
Carter was already getting up. “You think I’m going to be able to sit here drinking beer while that poor girl is by herself without dinner? Come on. I’ll drive you. We can go by the store and then get some good takeout for her.”